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> Your post is one anecodote you won't share, one "suspect" and one "hunch". > These are data?? From a scientist? No, there are several anecdotes. As a scientist, I know how easy it is for people to naively think that all of our understaning of the world around us comes only from structured, controlled experimentation. Anecdote plays a much larger role in our understanding of things than most folks realize. Certainly, one data point obtained via a controlled experiment is often more convincing than one data point obtained anecdotally; however in many cases the sheer volume of anecdote drowns out the experimental data. On certain aspects of fish biology, for example, I would probably tend to trust the opinions of local fishermen who never took a science class in their lives, over the opinions of someone with a PhD in Fishery Biology who is cognizant of all the "numbers". In diving, there has been little or no controlled experimentation on the topic of deep stops -- there is only anecdote. But that anecdote comes from the likes of commercial diving harvesters, who do something on the order of several hundred decompression dives PER YEAR (tens of thousands over a career), and George, and me, and J-P Imbert, and all the others. Now, do we ignore this anecdote and continue racing to our first rewquired stops simply because nobody has come up with the money to do the tests in a chamber? On the shark issue, put it this way: Would I submit an article to Science or Nature on the topic of sharks being attreacted to scooters? Hell no! Would I be cautions about using scooters in areas with potential shark problems? Hell yes! > The issue is not whether a shark thinks you look like a lure when it runs > across you riding a scooter, but whether the noise or the EMF really > attracts them from some considerable distance away. That's only half of it. The other half is how the noise or EMF of the scooter might affect the behavior of the sharks. There is an old shark documentary -- I'm sure they show it on "Shark Week" on DSC -- I think it was by Ron and Valerie Taylor. Maybe it was Cousteau. Regardless, in this program, there is a sequence where they put a bunch of dead bleeding fish on a reef, and then 20 feet away they put a speaker which emmitted a "WUGGA WUGGA WUGGA" sound. Damndest thing - the sharks were more interested in the "WUGGA WUGGA WUGGA" than they were in the bloody fish. Have you ever used a scooter? The one I used (Tekna) goes "WUGGA WUGGA WUGGA"...... > But, if > this is true, and not just another shark myth, I'd like to hear/see some > actual data, anecdotal or otherwise. I already said I'm not going to recount my story here - but I'll summarize: Rich is riding a scooter at 60fsw, above a ledge that is in 200 fsw. Rich sees big Tiger shark on ledge. Big Tiger shark leaves ledge and heads up toward Rich. Rich, hundreds of yards from the boat, gets nervous & stops the scooter. Big Tiger shark *immediately* returns to ledge and continues its original path. Just as shark is out of view, Rich starts scooter again. *IMMEDIATELY*, big Tiger shark pulls a 180-degree turn (like you wouldn't believe a critter of that size could do) and rockets up directly toward Rich like a Surface-to Air Missile. Rich surfaces, summons the boat, and continues the dive just swimming. If this were the only incident, I would write it off as a fluke. However, when you then consider how EVERYTIME I have seen a shark while riding a scooter (that's 100% to you & me), the sharks act as though they are very agitated. In some cases, they even have "postured" with a classic threat display. But even that didn't sell me - not even when I considerd the aforementioned documentary with the speaker. What sold me is a newspaper article about a well-known ab. diver who was munched by a White off California while riding a scooter. There was a sidebar about how the local ab. divers are nervous about using the scooters because of some "close calls." Like I said before, I'll often trust the opinion of the local fishermen more than I'll trust the opinion of a scientist. When you factor in my personal experiences, plus Marco's story, that's enough to concince me. > Still holding my breath for the facts, just the facts, Ma'am While your sitting there holding your breath, I hope you're not riding a scooter on certain shark infested reefs..... Rich
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